working waterfront 2016

Supplement to the Wednesday, January 27, 2016 edition of the Port Townsend & Je� erson County Leader

★★★ 2016 2016 2016 ★ 2016 ★★★ 2016 ★ 2016 ★ 2016 ★★★ 2016 ★ ★★★

WorkingWorkingWorkingWaterfrontWaterfrontWaterfront

Boatbuilders: Armstrong arrives: 4

The Finisher: Diane Salguero: 6

Team Kraken Up takes on R2AK: 10

Copper bottom changes coming: 14

2 2016 WORKING WATERFRONT ✪ The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader

WORKING WATERFRONTEditor: Patrick J. Sullivan

Layout & Design: Marian Roh

[ \Published by the

Port Townsend Publishing Company226 Adams St., Port Townsend WA 98368

(360) 385-2900 (360) 385-3422 (fax)

Newsroom: Patrick J. Sullivan, managing editor. Allison Arthur, assistant editor. Robin Dudley, arts editor. Nicholas Johnson, reporter. Copy editors: Katie Kowalski, Sunny Parsons. Marketing: Catherine Brewer, director. Jen Clark, Amy Jordan. Classifieds/Memorials/Legals: Donna Rosmaier, director. Susan Jackson, Nancy Fitch, Janay Collins. Circulation: Kaye Bailey, Desirée Alexander. Production: Sara Radka, director. Chris Hawley, Scott Herning, Marian Roh. Administration: Scott Wilson, publisher. Jennifer James-Wilson, associate Publisher. Accounting: Elizabeth Laing, Betty Grewell

Being a “working wa-terfront” is part of Port Townsend’s history from the late 1800s.

Port Townsend Bay is the best natural harbor on Puget Sound, and the ma-rine trades industry here is the best place for your boat project: construction, recre-ational, commercial, old or new.

Thanks to the marine trades business people – from large outfi ts to independent contractors – nowhere on Puget Sound compares.

“Port Townsend has the largest concentration and most variety of marine trades that I am aware of on the West Coast,” said Larry Crockett, who retires this year after 17 years as Port of Port Townsend executive director. “And we have a

good reputation for quality of work.”

It’s an open yard, mean-ing owners may work on their own boats, bring in their crew from somewhere else, contract with local busi-nesses – or all of the above.

Port of Port Townsend rates and fees are middle-of-the-channel with other ports in Puget Sound, according to a port study.

“We’re still very inex-pensive when it comes to moorage rates and that sort of thing,” Crockett said. “We have a moorage waiting list of 160,” while some nearby ports have vacancies at 30 percent.

Port Townsend Boat Hav-en is more than boats. There are cafes, a fi sh market, coffee and beer breweries – and a 24-hour supermarket just across the highway.

Beyond the boatyard, the Northwest Maritime Center at Point Hudson and the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding down the bay in Port Hadlock are educa-tional and instructional stal-warts. The Port Townsend School District has a blos-soming partnership to bring marine education to students, and students to the marine industry. As for marine science, the Port Townsend Marine Science Center at Fort Worden is right up there with the best.

The stories featured in this edition of “Working Waterfront” introduce you to some of those businesses that make Port Townsend the place your boat would love.

Patrick J. Sullivan of the Leader

Boats love it in Port TownsendPort Townsend Boat Haven Haul-out Operations

Hoist 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

75-ton 1,599 1,570 1,543 1,646 1,598300-ton 247 282 314 281 259

TOTAL 1,846 1852 1,857 1,927 1,857

Source: Port of Port Townsend

Point Hudson Marina Nightly Guests

Year 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

TOTAL 4,981 5,097 5,195 4,554 4,970

Source: Port of Port Townsend

In and out Catalyst, a 74-foot vessel built in Seattle in 1932, hauled out for annual maintenance at the Port of Port Townsend Boat Haven in December 2015. Catalyst is a passenger excursion vessel, offering small-ship cruises in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Photo by Robin Dudley

A Working Waterfront

2016 Contents4: Armstrong arrives

6: The Finisher: Diane Salguero

8: Marina Cafe: Great waterfront seat

10: Team Kraken Up: Prepping for R2AK

12: Masters of Metal: Andersen fi lls a need

14: Bottoms Up: Copper changes coming

On the CoverOssian Smith, a Haven

Boatworks shipwright, works on the stern of the 105-foot fantail yacht Malibu at the Port of Port Townsend Boat Haven.

Photo by Nicholas Johnson

2016 WORKING WATERFRONT ✪ The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader 3

American Manufa� u� r � Marine, Ar� itectural and Industrial hardwa� Port Townsend Foundry LLC

251 Otto St.Port Townsend

WA. 98368

360 [email protected]

We pour a little history every day.

porttownsendfoundry.comporttownsendfoundry.com

[email protected] www.porttownsendrigging.com

360.385.6330 phone 360.385.7002 fax

290 10th St Port Townsend WA 98368

Monk 53 Gartside 50

Santa Cruz 27 Gorman Express 30

Tayana 36 Westsail 32

Freya 38 Mapleleaf 54

Mariner 40 ketch Spencer 53 ketch

Hinckley Bermuda 40 Ingrid 38

Alberg 37…..and more!

We build custom masts race & cruise

Port Townsend Marine Trades Associationwww.ptmta.org

Over 100 Men and Women Marine Trades ExpertsDesign, Construction, Re� t, Repair

Port Townsend Marine Trades Associationwww.ptmta.org


Armstrong Consolidated sets up shop; retains

Gold Star Marine name for repair

businessBy Robin Dudley of the Leader

“We’re excited to be here in Port Townsend, to be here work-ing and growing,” said Cory Arm-strong, president of Armstrong Consolidated, Inc. (ACI), builders of new aluminum boats.

ACI is occupying the Gold Star Marine buildings along the waterfront at Boat Haven, and did an asset purchase of Gold Star’s name, equipment and some structures.

“We’re still operating under the Gold Star name for the ser-vice, refi t and repair side of the business,” Armstrong said of the business that closed in 2015. “The demand seems to be there” for general boat maintenance and repair; they’ve been book-ing jobs since Jan. 1. “Our goal is to service the marine commu-nity and fi ll the gap left by Gold Star.”

The main focus of ACI is build-ing new aluminum boats. “The reason we came here was to man-ufacture new boats,” Armstrong said, “to design and market and eventually distribute a standard line of welded aluminum boats for the recreational market.”

Most of Armstrong’s back-ground is in custom boatbuilding; he’s managed the construction of more than 1,000 boats. His goal with ACI is production building – boats that he designed. “We still offer purpose-specifi c, built-to-or-der or custom” boats, he said, add-ing he dislikes the word “custom.”

“It requires everyone to be an engineer,” he said, and “it’s dif-fi cult to grow a manufacturing business on a custom line.”

ACI primarily builds catama-rans – power yachts up to 54 feet in length. They also build trailerable sportfi shing or recreational boats in the $150,000 range. Now be-ing built in Building 2 is a 26-foot monohull, the trailerable Kestrel. With the ACI signature “deep-V” hull with a reverse chine, the ef-fi cient, stable Kestrel is designed to handle well in all weather. This one, now sitting on one of six dol-lies inherited from Gold Star, is

bound for Alaska Boat Brokers in southeast and south central Alas-ka this summer. Nearby, welding torches fl ash on a 36-foot charter fi shing boat catamaran destined to go to work in Seward, Alaska, this summer. It was designed by Tim Nolan Marine Design in Port Townsend.

“We like Tim. He’s also one of the reasons we wanted to come to Port Townsend,” Armstrong said of the well-known designer.

ACI has a numerically com-puter-controlled hydraulic press brake in Building 2, a machine that bends metal, and a rolling machine used to curve pieces of metal. ACI is also now building a 6-foot-long model of their 34-foot Alegria catamaran, which they’ll bring to the 2016 Seattle Boat Show.

ACI outsources the cutting of frames, stringers and hull pieces. “We basically get a kit,” Arm-strong said. Using the pre-cut pieces, ACI assembles the hulls on a jig, or platform, typically upside-down. The fi nished hull is turned over, tanks and other belowdeck

equipment is installed, deck and topside are built and the house or cabin is built on top or put on as a sub-component, before the me-chanical and fi t-out of engines and electrical systems are completed.

“Aluminum is an ideal materi-al,” Armstrong said. “It’s environ-mentally friendly, it’s recyclable, it’s clean to work with.”

Lightweight aluminum boats are fuel-effi cient, don’t require paints or fi nishes, and, after 30-40 years of usable life, can be scrapped. “There’s value in it,” Armstrong said. ACI recycles as much as possible, he noted, includ-ing small offcuts and shavings.

“I grew up in a remote area of British Columbia,” said Arm-strong, who is a dual citizen of Canada and the U.S. “Our fam-ily lived off the land.” He went to school by rowboat, and didn’t have electricity at home until he was in high school.

In high school in the 1980s, he learned aluminum fabrication and welding working for Western Aluminum Craft, building com-mercial seine-fi shing boats. In the

early ‘90s, he started build-ing aluminum boats with his older brother, Josh, who con-tinues with that business, Arm-strong Marine, located in Port Angeles.

“Ultimately, we had different visions for our company [and] it was more im-portant to me to have a good relationship with my brother than have that affected by trying to run a business together. It was start-ing to put unnecessary stress on the family.

“There was a lot of my lifework put into that,” Armstrong added. “Our designs and target markets are different.”

He left the family business in spring 2015, and began searching for a place to locate his own busi-ness, Armstrong Consolidated,

Inc. His busi-ness partners are Jeremy Cornelson, who ran Blue Wa-ter Boatworks of Port Angeles for more than 20 years; and Peggy Barnett, general manag-er. Armstrong’s son Taylor also works at ACI as an aluminum welder. Cornel-son is opera-tions manager

and in charge of the refi t and re-pair business, Gold Star Marine.

Armstrong is excited to be in Port Townsend, and said he came to PT largely because of Peter Quinn at the Jefferson County Economic Development Council, who introduced him to the Local Investing Opportunities Network (LION), through which ACI found some local capital investors.

Armstrong said he expects ACI to increase its current work-

Boatbuilders

“Aluminum is an ideal material. It’s environmentally

friendly, it’s recyclable, it’s clean

to work with.”

Cory Armstrongpresident

Armstrong Consolidated, Inc.

Cory Armstrong stands beside a 26-foot boat, Kestrel, in the Gold Star Marine building at Boat Haven in Port Townsend, the new home of Armstrong’s production aluminum boatbuilding business, Armstrong Consolidated, Inc. The company also bought the Gold Star Marine name and equipment, and is offering refit and repair services there, too. Photo by Robin Dudley


Associate of Occupational Studies Degree

Now enrolling for school year starting October 2016

42 N. Water Street Port Hadlock, WA 360-385-4948

www.nwswb.eduOur school is accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (ACCSC) Veterans Benefits and Financial Aid available for those who qualify

THANK YOUThese maritime leaders advise the Boat School on its programs to make sure our students receive an education relevant to today’s workplace.

Ann Avary, Northwest Center of Excellence for Marine Manufacturing & Technology

Paul Birkey, Belina InteriorsAl Cairns, Port of Port TownsendJim Franken, James J. Franken, Inc.Stephen Gale, Haven BoatworksDavid King, Former CFO Townsend

Bay MarineJim Lyons, Port Townsend

Shipwrights Co-op MemberKeith Mitchell, Rutherford’s

BoatshopDan Newland, Pegasus Aeromarine

Inc.Peter Proctor, Jensen MarineSarah Rubenstein, Port Townsend

Maritime Discovery SchoolsGordon Sanstad, Boatwright &

former boatbuilding instructorKelley Watson, Port Townsend

High School Maritime Experiential Education Coordinator

Steve White, Brooklin Boat Yard

RIG YOUR BOAT~WORKSHOP with BRION TOSS~

HEAD WORK HANDS ON

A weekend spent on the particulars of rigging

calculations and consultation for YOUR boat. Bring YOUR

rig plan, YOUR deck plan, and photos.

June 4 & 52016

Port Townsend(360) 385-1080

www.briontoss.com


HEAD WORK HANDS ON




June 4 & 52016


www.briontoss.com


HEAD WORK HANDS ON




June 4 & 52016


www.briontoss.com


HEAD WORK HANDS ON




June 4 & 52016


www.briontoss.com

We guide business owners to � nancial freedom

We’ll Get You � ere.Schedule a FREE One-Hour Consultation Today!360-385-6961www.thebusinessguides.com

• Tax Planning & Compliance• Retirement & Social Security Planning• Financial Life Plans• Buying & Selling Businesses• Financing Strategies

force of 15 to 30 within the next year or two.

He anticipates there might be some problems with parking, as the Gold Star building’s ac-cess doors have parking spots right up next to them, which could block the port district’s TraveLift or cause problems with loading and unloading materials. He also said ACI employees are having some dif-fi culty fi nding housing.

“So far, we’ve had nothing but an overwhelming welcome, which makes me glad to be here,” he said. “We want to col-laborate with other businesses in the port and the community, and are hoping to offer servic-es in return.” ACI has “a good hydraulic press, along with an inventory of hoses and fi ttings. Things of that nature, along with specialty welding of alumi-num and stainless steel, will be offered to clients.”

ACI is hiring workers with knowledge of aluminum fabri-cation and welding, mechanical systems, fi nishing, hydraulics, propulsion installers, joiners and an in-house engineer and draftsman.

“It’s not going to be easy,” Armstrong said. “Fortunately, we have a lot of support and a lot of experience behind us.”


Diane Salguero has gone from the ‘Root Beer Float’

to ‘Diane’s Dock’By Robin Dudley of the Leader

Diane Salguero has been a professional marine fi nisher in Port Townsend for more than 20 years, and her roots here are deep.

She took sailing lessons from Jim Daubenberger and Glenn Abraham in the 1970s, and made her own boat from a driftwood log and a plastic sail, which was dubbed the “Root Beer Float.”

Her dad was a paint sales-man at Eccles Garden Center, and she painted a few houses with him after she graduat-ed from Port Townsend High School in 1980 with the goal of owning a fl ower shop.

She moved to Vancouver, Washington, to attend Clark College, and she bought and owned a fl ower shop for a two years, starting at age 18. It was a stressful but invaluable inex-perience, and taught her a lot about business management. She closed it, then managed a photography studio, and when she moved back to PT in 1985, she worked for photographer Paul Boyer for fi ve years. In 1989 she started to work as a marine fi nisher, “just me and my little tool bag,” and her business has evolved from there. She also fi shed commercially in Alaska for four seasons and worked in a sail loft for a year, at Ellen Fal-coner’s Sound Sails.

“I got stuck [in Port Townsend] because I bought my house,” she said. That was in 1988. “It kind of chains you to a place.”

With her husband, she owned a 49-foot Sparkman & Stephens sloop, but they hadn’t fi nished it when they divorced in 2001.

“That’s when I had to start getting serious about a career for me,” she said. “As a single mom, I had to fi gure out how to make a living.”

The fl exibility of fi nish work attracted her. “Being available to [my sons] was more important to me than a career. Parenting was my career.” She would bring sons Miguel and Marco to work

with her, sometimes putting them in lifejackets in an infl at-able boat tied off to the boat she was working on.

She taught preschool while her youngest was in kindergar-ten, but wasn’t happy there and went back to boat work. “That’s when my business really started growing.”

She’s also a certifi ed guard-ian ad litem for Jefferson Coun-ty Superior Court, advocating in the court system for kids who are wards of the state.

DIANE’S DOCKAlthough she’s well estab-

lished now, being self-employed is diffi cult, Salguero said. The uncertainty about the next job is always there, and “it’s more ex-pensive, because of self-employ-ment tax.”

Upsides are “the fl exibility of this work, the fact that it’s out-side,” she said. “That’s why it fi t for me as a single mom.”

“It’s been really good,” she said. “My business is built on referral. You get certain clients who have seen your work al-ready, so you don’t have to sell yourself very much. It’s pretty

easy to assess a job, and be close and clear on your estimates.”

Her established clientele in-cludes many Jefferson County residents, among them some owners from Port Ludlow who have hired her every year for 20 years, and people who bring their boat to her from other counties.

Regular maintenance saves boat owners money in the long run, she said. “It’s like changing oil on an engine.” Boats sit out in the weather, on the water and need attention. “In the North-west, a big problem is moss and mold,” she said. “It’s a battle with Mother Nature. We’re always duking it out, but we have an understanding.”

Salguero also watches peo-ple’s boats who leave for the winter. “I’m down here [at Boat Haven] pretty much every day, even in the winter,” she said. “Where’s my shop? Right there,” she said, gesturing toward the marina. “My business is outside, all day, every day.”

She can point to a dozen boats she’s worked on – four are lined up in a row on D Dock, which she said a friend jokingly referred to as “Diane’s Dock” be-

cause of how many boats she’s worked on there.

BRINGING BUSINESS TO PORT TOWNSEND

Hers is a completely mobile business; she uses a work van. “Most of my work takes me to the boat,” she said. Her clients know to save their indoor paint work for winter; she’s outside in summer, her busy season.

“You can make it work if you know how to do it,” she said of painting and varnishing exte-riors in wintertime. “We have mild enough winters.”

Salguero specializes in fi n-ish from the waterline up and project management. Most of her projects involve other pieces – systems, wood repair, rigging repair. “I refer, or I hire some-one to fi x that for the owner.” She knows a lot of people, which makes her valuable to boat owners.

“I can pretty much service anything anybody needs, be-cause of my contacts,” she said. “I’m here. I know these things. I have these connections.”

And she knows who’s reliable.

Salguero is “picky” about making customer referrals. “It refl ects on me,” she said. She’s also met boat owners who have had bad experiences, and has worked “to regain their trust in the community.”

Salguero is a traditionalist when it comes to family values, she said, and when it comes to work ethic. “Bad eggs reveal themselves with their work and their work ethic.”

Often, Salguero said, she has lunch with her competitors; they’re her friends, too. “There’s enough work here for everyone. We just need to be polite, and be accountable, and be courteous to one another.”

She noted that independent contractors like herself bring a lot of work to Port Townsend, such as a boat she just fi n-ished working on that came from Roche Harbor, its owners renting moorage space for two months in Port Townsend and employing several people.

“Even little old me, who doesn’t have a sign on a build-ing, brings work from out of town,” she said. “We little guys count, too.”

The Finisher

Diane Salguero stands on D Dock at Port Townsend Boat Haven, which she said a friend jokingly calls Diane’s Dock because she’s worked on so many of the boats. Salguero is an independent contractor who specializes in maintenance and repair paint and varnish for new and traditional yachts. Photo by Robin Dudley


Power/Sail Wood-Glass-Steel-Aluminum,Pleasure & Commercial Fishing Vessels

360-683-4660 or 360-457-5092email [email protected]

No travel charges anywhere in Northwest

All Points Nor’west Marine Surveyors

Jody ComanSAMS® Accredited MArine Surveyor®

Welding EquipmentSafety & Industrial SuppliesEquipment Rental & Repair

Gas Delivery & Cylinder Exchange

We have the right tools for the job!

Visit us!847-B W. Park Ave.

Port Townsend

(360) 385-9533centralwelding.com

Environmental Impact StatementsWetland Ratings & Delineation

SCUBA and Habitat Surveys

Environmental Permitting

[email protected] (360) 385-4073www.marinesurveysandassessments.com

Wetland Ratings & Delineation

Environmental Permitting

[email protected] (360) 385-4073

BOAT PEOPLEShe hires a handful of part-

time employees in summer and into the winter; in mid-Decem-ber 2015, she had just fi nished a big job re-caulking, painting and varnishing.

Sometimes she hires young men from Gray Wolf Ranch, an inpatient substance abuse treat-ment center in Port Townsend, who start with her as volunteers.

In its early years, she worked at the Northwest Mari-time Center, running a volun-teer program in the boat shop. That’s where she started work-ing with volunteers from Gray Wolf. She teaches them useful skills, and if it works out, hires them. “One or two have stuck around for a couple years,” she said, though she thinks it’s best for them to move on from town. “They’re getting recov-ery and getting on with life.”

Some have turned out to be skilled fi nishers, she said, after working with her and learning how to paint and varnish.

“It’s what I’m good at.”She likes her trade, because

she likes the people she works with. “I’ll be doing this as long as I can. I love my work,” she said. “Boat people are great people.”


On the MenuHomemade

food, cheerful conversation,

waterfront seats

By Allison Arthur of the Leader

Shipwright Ozzie Anderson saunters up to the counter at the Marina Cafe and announces, “I’ll have whatever you give me.”

That’s because there is no menu at the Marina Cafe, lo-cated on the waterfront at Port Townsend Boat Haven. Ander-son is a regular who trusts that whatever cook/waitress/owner Jen Takaki is preparing and serving that day is good and fi lling.

Customers say Takaki dishes out more than delicious home-made chili, stromboli, salads, cookies and healthy muffi ns at her little eatery at 2800 Wash-ington St.

Takaki – who prefers to go simply by “Jen” – also treats customers to generous helpings of cheerful conversation.

“I come here because she’s so cheerful,” says Chris Chimen-ti, who, like Anderson, orders whatever she’s making that day.

It’s a Wednesday, which means it’s chili day, but it also happens to be the day the Pow-erball lottery has reached $1.5 billion. Takaki has bought a few tickets and is chatting about it as she takes orders.

“If we win, everyone wins. I’d share with everyone down here. Everyone’s lives would change,” Takaki says, noting that cus-tomers have been good to her.

“I’m not greedy. I just want to fi nish my goat fence,” she jokes, sharing, between orders, that she has six goats, one rabbit, four ducks, some old hens that haven’t laid eggs in years, and three dogs. And she loves them all.

The conversation fl ows eas-ily at the Marina Cafe, which Takaki has owned for fi ve years. She’s recently signed another lease, so she isn’t going any-where soon.

CUSTOMERS SAYJeffrey Johnson is having chili

today as well. He works right above the cafe and smells things baking early in the morning. He eats at the cafe almost every day.

“Wednesday is my favorite. I never miss it. But I had to stop eating the cookies,” he says, hold-ing up a double chocolate cookie he’s going to eat right after that chili.

“Sometimes, I’ll come down and say, ‘I need eggs, and she makes me eggs and puts all kinds of fresh ingredients in with them.’”

“You know,” he says, lowering his voice so Takaki can’t hear him, “there are old salty mariners who come here who’ve been able to cut back on their medications because Jen takes care of them. She’s like a mom. She makes sure they eat right,” Johnson says.

A man steps through the door and starts talking to Johnson, who just bought Anchor Canvas, about some equipment he might be interested in. Johnson says he’ll be by tomorrow.

Businesses is conducted infor-mally at the cafe. People network over soup and sandwiches, talk about their projects, gripe and boast about business.

More than anything, they say, it’s Takaki, not just her food, that keeps customers coming back.

“It’s Jennifer’s personality. She makes you feel comfortable. And the food is good,” says Todd Flye, who owns On the Flye, a gelcoat and fi berglass repair business.

SITDOWN WITH JENThe cafe opens at 7 a.m., Mon-

day through Friday and closes roughly around 4 p.m., so that Takaki has time to pick up her son, 6-year-old Henry. He’s why she does everything these days, including taking time off on weekends.

“I knew I would love him, but I didn’t know I’d like him this much,” says Takaki, who became a mother at age 39.

It’s near the end of the day, and a few people stop by want-ing hot chocolate or a cookie. Jen serves them, all the while talking to a newcomer as if she’s just in her home kitchen and everyone has been invited to take whatever they want and enjoy.

Ask about the paintings on the wall, and there’s a story be-hind every one. She paid $100 and traded two lunches for the photo of the Coral Sea, a boat that sank and was quite the talk of the mari-time community.

A charcoal drawing of the front of her cafe, done on Leader news-print by Vincent Hovey, was a gift she felt honored to receive.

On the counter, there’s an oys-ter shell someone decorated with a sailboat on the inside. She traded a cup of coffee for it, which is all the artist wanted.

She used to do a lot of trading for food, but that had to come to an end when people were offering half a hammer or a single shoe.

Behind the counter is what she calls the “tab board,” which is lined with tabs kept by customers, who typically pay up every two weeks. There are only a handful of customers who owe more than $40, some dating back two years, but Jen gets a look in her eye and says, “There’s still time for them to pay up.”

“It always works out OK,” she says of customers being honorable about paying their bills.

“Most people call us the Break Even Cafe,” she adds.

Taking over the place fi ve years ago was easy, she says. “The minute the door opened, there was someone. It’s like he said, ‘Hi, I’m Al,’ and I said, ‘Hi, I’m Jen. Want a muffi n?’”

She’s been on a fi rst-name basis with customers ever since, including dogs such as Torval, a regular canine customer who sits out front and barks, and then leaves once he’s satiated.

She knows about 90 percent of

her customers by fi rst name now, although she admits that sometimes she gets one wrong.

“I called Ben ‘Ed’ for a year and a half, and he never cor-rected me,” she notes.

When she fi rst started out, she came in ear-ly to bake and be ready for cus-tomers. These days, she comes at 7 a.m. and has “fresh stuff” out by 8 a.m.

“I can bake and talk and watch ‘Good Morning America’ at the same time.”

Takaki has become a fi xture of the maritime community at Boat Haven.

She’s joined the Port Townsend Marine Trades Association and talked up the Port Townsend trades last year at the Seattle Boat Show.

Her partner, Dave Zusag, a marine electrician, pops in on breaks to help with cafe dishes.

And the restaurant also has hosted a wedding and a funeral. The wedding was for a fi sher-

man. Then, in 2013, the cafe was where friends gath-ered to grieve after David Ewoldt fell off his boat and drowned. Takaki was moved by all the people who stopped by to pay tribute to Ewoldt.

Her family also has been involved in the

business.Her father, Wally Takaki,

helps out. He’s from Hawaii and knows how to cook, she says. Her mother, Margaret, taught her ev-erything she knows about baking.

During the summer, Takaki uses a lot of her own fresh, home-grown vegetables in her cafe meals.

“I feel better when I eat here,” says one customer.

A cup of chili and bread and a cookie is $5, and Takaki admits she’s not getting rich, but “I think a lot of it is if you put out good food and you treat people the way you want to be treated, it will all work out in the end.”

Taylor Kingsolver, 10, often comes to Marina Cafe after school to be with Jen Takaki, business owner, cook and waitress. He also sometimes sweeps up to make a few bucks. Photo by Allison Arthur

“If you put out good food and you treat people the way you

want to be treated, it will all work out in

the end.”

Jen Takakiowner

Marina Cafe


• Modular Construction

• Aluminum Fabrication and Aluminum Welding

• Plate Fitting and Welding, all Processes

• Pipe Fitting and Pipe Welding, all Processes

• Marine Electrical and Navigation

• Sandblasting, Painting and Coatings

• Consulting & Project Management

CraftsmenUnited Inc.

360.379.2500www.unitedcraftsmeninc.com

304 10th Street, Port Townsend, WA 98368

We Build Aluminum

BoatsPride in Craftsmanship...

Attention to Detail...

Delivery of a Quality Product in a Timely

Fashion…

That’s standard operating procedure here at

Craftsmen United, Inc.

PORTTOWNSENDSAILS.COM (360) 385-1640


Team Kraken UpPrepping for

Race to Alaska By Robin Dudley of the Leader

The Northwest Maritime Center’s 2015 Race to Alaska, an engineless boat race from Port Townsend to Ketchikan, Alaska, created a nationwide sensation.

It was a ploy to get people in-terested in the kind of on-water adventures that take place in engineless boats, and it worked. Thousands of people followed the race online; it put Port Townsend even more on the nautical map.

It’s happening again. This year’s 750-mile Race to Alaska (R2AK) starts on Thursday, June 23. As in 2015, there is a 40-mile qualifying race from Port Townsend to Victoria, British Columbia. Full-race participants then depart for Ketchikan. The fi rst team to reach Ketchikan wins $10,000; second place wins (again) a set of steak knives.

Boats are not allowed to have engines on board, receive pre-ar-ranged supply drops or any other outside support, except the love and admiration of their fans.

Last year, 60 vessels departed Port Townsend, and 40 vessels departed Victoria for Ketchikan. Team Elsie Piddock arrived fi rst after fi ve days, 4 hours and 17 minutes on the water from the start in Port Townsend.

As of early January, 16 teams have already signed up for the full course of the Race to Alaska.

One of those teams, the all-women Team Kraken Up, was started by Kim Carver of Port Hadlock.

“I didn’t aggressively try to start it,” she said. “I put a post on Facebook.”

The post was a call for wom-en who wanted to join an R2AK team, and responses poured in, Carver said. “Dozens of people said, ‘I’m in.’”

When Marcella Braniff and Jill Russell joined, “I said, ‘you guys can be the captains,’ and then they brought [others] on board,” Carver said.

Russell is a licensed mariner who teaches at the Pacifi c Mari-time Institute and is studying to be a marine pilot for Southeast Alaska. She’s married to Braniff, also a captain, who worked for Un-Cruise Adventures, a Seattle-based company offering small-boat cruises. Carver also has

worked for Un-Cruise, as have Kraken Up teammates Heather Carter and Katie Wixom.

Team Kraken Up also includes Tara Morgan, a professional row-ing coach; Alice Rhomieux; Ella Kucharova; and Julie Keim, own-er of Compass Courses, which is sponsoring the team.

ONWARDKeim also bought the boat

they’re going to use – the 28-foot longboat, Onward, designed by Kit Africa and built by Commu-nity Boat Project students and volunteers in lower Hadlock in 2009-2010. Keim paid $15,000 for Onward, “plus paint and delivery,” Carver said. It’s now in Edmonds, home of the team’s sponsoring business, Compass Courses, a maritime training school.

Racing to Alaska isn’t cheap. Carver estimated it’ll cost “some-thing like $30,000 for all nine people.” That includes $12,000 in drysuits, nine $300 oars, food, ho-tel rooms in Victoria, fl ights home

from Ketchikan and a $650 team entry fee plus $75 for each addi-tional member. Each team mem-ber is making monthly payments to Russell to pay their share, Carver said.

Carver also hopes to get a sat-ellite phone for the team. “I’d re-ally like to continue telling people about the race and British Colum-bia,” she said.

Onward is a sailboat, but Carv-er is the only team member who knows how to sail. Their strategy, she said, is to approach the race “Soggy Beaver style – a lot of row-ing.” In the 2015 R2AK, the pad-dle-powered Team Soggy Beaver fi nished seventh overall.

“Our training schedule is in-tense. I’ve been getting swole,” she quipped.

The biggest challenge for Team Kraken Up, Carver predicted, is “the mental endurance ... living in a small space for days at a time, being exhausted, having to pee and poop in front of each other.”

Team Kraken Up is one of two

all-female teams signed up for the 2016 R2AK. The other is Team Sistership on an F-127 trimaran.

“We’re not really playing up the all-female thing,” Carver said. “We’re all-human.”

FACEBOOK PROCarver worked for the North-

west Maritime Center and Wood-en Boat Foundation for three years, orchestrating the organiza-tions’ social-media presence. Like Jake Beattie, Northwest Mari-time Center executive director and R2AK originator, she used to work in Seattle at the Center for Wooden Boats.

When maritime center staff was starting the fi rst R2AK, they tried raising the $10,000 prize money through an online crowd-funding Kickstarter campaign.

“When we were getting down to the wire, I called Dan Blanchard,” the owner of Un-Cruise Adven-tures, Carver said. “He was in-terested and ended up donating a cruise for two for a contest. And he donated the prize money.”

Carver was in charge of the so-cial media for the 2015 R2AK. “It was a huge job, especially during the race,” when the R2AK Face-book page saw 20,000 unique hits each day, she said.

Like tens of thousands of other people, Carver watched the online tracker to see where teams were. The job demanded “constant vigi-lance,” and “when there was a lot of activity, deciding what to post.” She researched back-stories of

teams, “things the public would engage with on a personal level,” and found photos and stories of the remote places the teams found themselves. “It was a way to get people to learn more about the Northwest, British Columbia and Southeast Alaska,” she said.

JACK TARCarver also publishes “Jack

Tar” magazine; there have been fi ve issues so far. She accepts submissions from mariners – art, poetry, fi ction, news about edu-cational opportunities, “anything that would benefi t hawse-pipers,” people who, in traditional sailors’ parlance, “came in through the hawse pipe,” or started working on sailboats at the bottom. With the magazine and her calen-dars, featuring images of women working in the maritime world, Carver is “trying to encourage mi-norities, women and hawse-pipers in general to excel in the maritime world.”

When Carver started as a vol-unteer on the Lady Washington in 2003, she was promoted to fi rst mate within a month. She’d been working on boats for years, mostly the Victoria Clipper, as well as on the San Juan Explorer as a whale-watching guide in the San Juan Islands, on tugboats, in the Great Lakes and British Virgin Islands and in New England, and on the Carlyn, a sail-training ship.

“I’ve done a lot of different boat jobs,” she said. “I love the mari-time community.”

Keep an eye on Team Kraken Up in the 2016 Race to Alaska, the engineless boat race with a $10,000 prize. Team Kraken Up is (back, from left) coach and crew member Tara Morgan-Mulvenon, Katie Wixom, Alice Rhomieux, Kim Carver, Heather Carter, crew member and primary sponsor Julie Keim, owner of Com-pass Courses; (front) team leaders, the wife-wife team of Captain Jill Russell and Captain Marcella Braniff, with Ella Kucharova Skyped in from Montreal, Quebec, on the laptop between them. Courtesy photo

The 28-foot rowing and sailing longboat Onward, designed by Kit Africa and built by Community Boat Project students and volunteers in 2009-2010, was purchased by Julie Keim of Compass Courses in Edmonds for the use of Team Kraken Up in the engine-free Race to Alaska. Courtesy photo


At Your Dock Services - Haulout ServicesAll Major Brands - Diesel - Gas - On-Board Systems

Running Gear - Electrical - Plumbing - Sanitation - Heating(360) 301-4871(360) 531-2270

www.galmukoffmarine.com

Serving All of Puget Sound If We Cannot Find a Way,We’ll make One!

Learning Through a Sense of

PlaceFor more information, visit maritimediscovery.org or call 360.385.3628 x 117

www.QuimperMerc.com 1121 Water Street

360-385-9595OPEN EVERY DAY 9am-7pm Mon-Sat

& 10am-6pm Sundays

www.QuimperMerc.com1121 Water Street

“From the Essentials to the Extraordinary.”

Quimper Merc Knows Work!

Check Out Our Selection of Work Wear


Captain’s License

COMPLETE YOUR CAPTAIN’S LICENSE COURSE • in one week. $855 for Six Pack or $990 for Mas-ter’s License. Everything needed for the course is provided. Classroom located in Port Hadlock. Courses start Feb. 20, Mar. 19, Apr. 9, May 7, and Jun. 18. Call 1-855-344-2682 or www.americanmarinetc.com

Marine DesignTIM NOLAN MARINE DESIGN • Na-val Architect, PE. Design services for new construction and conversions. We collaborate to create design packages for fiberglass, wood, alu-minum and steel. Contact Tim Nolan Marine Design for consultation and design, [email protected] or (360) 379-9689.

Reference BookNEED HELP VARNISHING/PAINTING YOUR BOAT? • Try my book! ‘Tricks, Cheating & Ching-aderos: A Collection of Knowl-edge and Tips for Varnishing/Painting Wooden Boats’ by Joni Blanchard has been republished in color and is now available online through Amazon and also from Port Townsend’s marine-related and book stores or direct from [email protected] (Reference book!).

Sails & Canvas

MYSTERY BAY SAILS & CANVAS • Specializing in custom sail and ma-rine canvas products. Award winning canvas maker and expert marine textile fabricator for both commerical and private clients. Maintenance, re-pairs, or totally new sails and covers. www.mysterybaysailscanvas.com or [email protected] or (360) 379-9993.

localmarineServicesMetal Masters

Andersen Machine Shop has

clients large and small

By Robin Dudley of the Leader

Ask around at Port Townsend Boat Haven about where to go for machining work, and you’ll soon be direct-ed to Andersen Machine Shop.

Ulfar Andersen, 72, learned machining in his father’s ma-chine shop in Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland, starting when he was 8 years old. He began working there at age 15.

He and his wife, Halla Njals-son, moved to Port Townsend in 1999, a relocation Andersen credits to Pete Chaffee, who “kind of talked me into com-ing here and taking a look,” Andersen said in his Icelandic accent.

Andersen’s fi rst machine shop here was located on Wash-ington Street, at the current lo-cation of SOS Printing. Then he rented space from Mike Galmu-koff at Boat Haven before build-ing his current shop, located at the boatyard’s northeast end, next to the Sims Way fence and the sharp corner of Jefferson Street behind the port adminis-tration building.

“Our specialty is probably not to say no,” Andersen said. He’ll do everything from small jobs to production, from auto-motive to food-processing ma-chine repair and, of course, anything required by boats.

In 2007, Andersen acquired a computer-numerically con-trolled (CNC) lathe. He brought out a heavy bag of identical small round parts made by the CNC lathe, then slid open the machine’s doors to show how it works. The lathe quickly cuts the end of a piece of metal and makes a radius inside, quickly switches tools to cut the inside and make a bevel, and then an-other tool cuts the piece off, all in a matter of seconds.

In 2015, Andersen Machine Shop got a second CNC ma-chine, a Haas, which is geared to do many more kinds of parts, Andersen said.

The new CNC machine “has

kept us a lot busier in the past year,” said Thor Njalsson, 29, who works in his parents’ shop. “With CNC, it costs less to make more than one part,” he added, demonstrating the machine in action.

The equipment is about the size of a minivan, with wide windows through which one can watch the machine’s

robotic arms swiftly unfold, turn and drill, guided by the instructions programmed into the panel beside the big slid-ing doors, which automatically lock to prevent accidents.

Integrated Marine Systems Inc. of Ballard, a maker of refrig-eration equipment for boats and one of Andersen’s biggest clients, helped to persuade him to get the

machine. Andersen also does “lots of

little stuff.” He has done ma-chining for Port Townsend Rig-ging, the Northwest Maritime Center, Brion Toss Rigging and “a lot of boat owners, mostly in the summer,” he said.

It might be more diffi cult to fi nd any business in the boat-yard that he hasn’t done some work for, he said. He’s got plenty of business, all through word of mouth.

Andersen primarily works with stainless steel, as much of that metal is used around salt-water, he said. “Also bronze, brass, titanium and regular steel, of course.”

His wife, Halla, is integral to the business, managing the bookkeeping, billing, packing and shipping.

“What do I not do?” she quipped.

“Our specialty is probably

not to say no.”

Ulfar AndersenAndersen Machine Shop

Ulfar Andersen, wife Halla Njalsson and son Thor Njalsson squeeze in between a workbench and their new computer-numerically controlled (CNC) machine at Andersen Machine Shop in the Port Townsend Boat Haven. Photo by Robin Dudley

Thor Njalsson programs the CNC machine, which was added in 2015 at Andersen Machine Shop. Photo by Robin Dudley


Over 50 years experience building and restoring

wooden vesselsOur company has the ability to change out any major structural components and bring your project to completion with fine custom

wood working for your interiors.

CUNNINGHAM & STRINGHAM

SHIPS CARPENTRY LLC

810 Haines Place, Port Townsend Wa 360-385-9824

141 Hudson Street 360-344-DOCS

www.docsgrill.com

Slip into Doc’s in the Point Hudson MarinaFood, Drinks and FUN Done Right!Yacht Finishing

DIANNA DENNY DESIGN • Profes-sional finisher, proficient in all phases of refinishing, from surface prepara-tion (heat gunning/stripping) to the creation of exceptionally beautiful, durable finishes on interiors and ex-teriors. Provides every client with caring, knowledgeable service and impeccable workmanship at a rea-sonable price. [email protected] or (360) 850-3963.

localmarineServices


Copper BottomsSeismic shift

coming to recreational boat

industry By Robin Dudley of the Leader

For hundreds of years, cop-per has been used to inhibit growth of unwanted plants and animals on boats’ bottoms. However, the harmful chemi-cals released into the water by copper-based and other “anti-fouling” paints also leach into the water and can harm marine ecosystems, particularly in ma-rinas, where a lot of boats are concentrated.

In an effort to protect the marine environment, the Wash-ington State Legislature in 2011 passed Bill 5436, prohibiting the use of antifouling paint contain-ing copper on most recreational vessels. Beginning in 2018, it will be illegal to sell a new rec-reational boat with antifouling paint containing copper.

Starting in 2020, it will be illegal to sell paint containing more than 0.5 percent copper intended for use on a recre-ational vessel, and illegal to apply antifouling paint con-taining more than 0.5 percent copper to a recreational vessel under 65 feet in length.

Recreational vessels are defi ned as being used, leased, rented or chartered primarily for pleasure.

The law does not restrict copper paint on commercial vessels, such as commercial fi shing boats or vessels that carry paying passengers, or any other boats that are subject to U.S. Coast Guard inspection.

“The dirty little secret is boats are pretty toxic and pret-ty bad for the environment,” said Bob Frank, owner of Ad-miral Ship Supply, Inc. at Port Townsend’s Boat Haven. He estimated bottom paint com-prises about 20 to 25 percent of his sales from January to May, and about 15 percent in summer. Most of his custom-ers are commercial boat own-ers, “like fi shermen,” he said. Frank guessed that 40 percent of his customers are working on wooden boats.

He pulled a few gallons off

the shelf to check the labels. Pettit’s Trinidad Pro is 60 per-cent cuprous oxide (copper).

“The cheapest copper paint is about $80 a gallon,” he said; high-end paints cost up to $350 per gallon. Pettit makes a slime-resistant paint that’s $250 per gallon.

“There’s more growth in stagnant marinas,” Frank ex-plained; growth of slime, sea-weed and critters on a boat’s bottom is affected by how much sun it gets, too.

“Nobody comes in asking for non-copper bottom paint,” Frank said. “Copper is the only thing that kills the toredo,” a worm that eats wood.” Alterna-tives to copper bottom paint are pretty poor in performance.”

Copper bottom paint is ab-lative – it’s designed to “slough off, like a bar of soap,” Frank said.

He noted that some tuna fishermen won’t use paint with more than 25 percent copper. “They think the tuna don’t like it,” he said, adding “24.7 percent is typically the lowest you’ll find in a copper paint.”

ANY ALTERNATIVES?Like others in the marine

trades who were asked their opin-ion of copper bottom paints, Frank pointed out that alternatives to copper bottom paint are also likely to harm marine ecosystems.

“What’s the new poison go-ing to do?” he said. “People want to hear that there’s this magic eco-paint.”

Rick Oltman, owner of Cape Cleare Fishery, has been research-ing the subject; his business is dedicated to sustainability and en-vironmental friendliness. He has been testing a copper-free Pettit bottom paint called Hydrocoat, a latex-based ablative bottom paint that uses biocides. He’s keeping careful records of the paint’s per-formance, recording details such as the weather when it’s applied, and how well it works.

“It’s copper-free, but it might have something worse,” Olt-man said. “What else do you do when you paint bottom paint on something – you’re trying to kill something.”

Al Cairns, Port of Port Townsend environmental com-pliance offi cer, agreed. “Many

of the new non-copper alterna-tives are substituting zinc as the biocide which is also an aquatic toxin, so it begs the question if we’re not just kidding ourselves about making for a healthier marine environment with this copper phase-out.”

Dave Thompson, a shipwright who has worked on wooden boats for about 40 years, observed that copper bottom paint is the only thing that stops toredo worms, wood-eating organisms that live in the marine environment.

Thompson said he thinks the ban on copper bottom paint is “a wonderful idea, if they ever devel-op a non-copper paint that actu-ally works.” The effect on the local wooden-boat community, he said, will be “a lot of fouled bottoms.”

He’s seen what happens to wooden boats that spend time in the water without copper paint – “Toredos eat it.” To see what it looks like, he said, “go look on the beach, at the logs. There’s holes in them.”

WOODEN BOATSWooden boats are Port

Townsend’s working water-

front’s claim to fame, and busi-nesses are likely to be affected by the state’s upcoming ban on using copper-based paints on recreational boats.

“If [the law] made an excep-tion for wooden boats, that would make all the difference,” said Ju-lia Maynard, co-owner of Haven Boatworks, a full-service boat re-pair and restoration company in Port Townsend that specializes in wooden boats. “And there’s not as many” wooden boats, she pointed out.

Maynard said copper-contain-ing bottom paints are particularly important for wooden boats.

She noted that sheet copper is still allowed, but it’s expensive – about $4 per square foot. In cen-turies past, wooden boats’ hulls were sheathed in sheet copper, with creosoted felt underneath, she said.

Frank also noted that the USS Constitution, aka “Old Ironsides,” a 217-year-old wooden sailing ship in Boston, is getting redone with sheet copper.

Most of the wooden boats in Port Townsend don’t have that kind of fi nancial backing,

A worker in a protective suit and respirator applies bottom paint to a sailboat at Port Townsend’s Boat Haven in summer 2015. A state law passed in 2011 outlaws the application of copper-based bottom paints to recreational vessels under 65 feet in length beginning in 2020. Photo by Robin Dudley


CLASSIC KNOT WORKCovering for tillers & wheels,

soft fenders, mats, swim ladders and other salty sailor stuff.

For illustrated catalog send stamped, self addressed envelope to:

The Knotted Line9908 168th Ave., N.E.

Redmond, WA 98052-3122or call (425) 885-2457

www.theknottedline.com

For illustrated catalog send stamped,

www.nwsailsandcanvas.com

✓ Sailmaking Instruction Canvas Covers ✓✓ Rig & Sail Design Boat Tops ✓✓ New Sails Cushions ✓✓ Repairs Repairs ✓

Sailloft: Canvas Shop:42 N. Water St. 1238 Blaine St.Port Hadlock, WA 98339 Port Townsend, WA 98368360-301-3204 360-385-5416

email: [email protected]

N

ORTHWEST SAILS

★ & CANVAS, INC. ★

Sailmaking Instruction Canvas Covers Rig & Sail Design Boat Tops New Sails Cushions Repairs Repairs


LS

New Sails Cushions

S

New Sails Cushions

Sailmaking Instruction Canvas Covers Rig & Sail Design Boat Tops New Sails Cushions Repairs Repairs


NRig & Sail Design Boat Tops NRig & Sail Design Boat Tops ORig & Sail Design Boat Tops ORig & Sail Design Boat Tops R

Sailmaking Instruction Canvas Covers R

Sailmaking Instruction Canvas Covers Rig & Sail Design Boat Tops

RRig & Sail Design Boat Tops

TSailmaking Instruction Canvas Covers TSailmaking Instruction Canvas Covers RTR

Sailmaking Instruction Canvas Covers HSailmaking Instruction Canvas Covers Sailmaking Instruction Canvas Covers WSailmaking Instruction Canvas Covers Sailmaking Instruction Canvas Covers ESailmaking Instruction Canvas Covers Sailmaking Instruction Canvas Covers SSailmaking Instruction Canvas Covers Sailmaking Instruction Canvas Covers TSailmaking Instruction Canvas Covers SSailmaking Instruction Canvas Covers SSailmaking Instruction Canvas Covers Rig & Sail Design Boat Tops

SRig & Sail Design Boat Tops

ARig & Sail Design Boat Tops

ARig & Sail Design Boat Tops Rig & Sail Design Boat Tops IRig & Sail Design Boat Tops LRig & Sail Design Boat Tops LRig & Sail Design Boat Tops New Sails Cushions

L

New Sails Cushions

S

New Sails Cushions

S

New Sails Cushions

360-301-3204 360-385-5416★ 360-301-3204 360-385-5416& CANVAS, INC.360-301-3204 360-385-5416& CANVAS, INC.360-301-3204 360-385-5416360-301-3204 360-385-5416★360-301-3204 360-385-5416

Call us for an insurance quote today!www.homersmith.com

888-433-0031

Port Townsend 360-385-3711

Sequim 360-683-4970

Small Craft to Large Vessels ...

Jim Maupin has insured the environmental education and youth

development schooner Adventuress for the past 25 years. Sound Experience relies on Jim for their great insurance.

How good is your boat insurance?Home Auto Life Business Marine

Jim Maupinenvironmental education and youth

development schooner

Phot

o by

Eliz

abet

h Be

cker

however. And the local busi-nesses that are hired to do maintenance on wooden boats are likely to feel the brunt of the bottom-paint ban. Most boat owners have their boats’ hulls cleaned and repainted every year or two.

“If there is no exemption for all wooden boats, many of them will be lost, to worm damage, or to Canada, where there is no ban, and will greatly affect the ma-rine trades here,” said Julie An-derson, offi ce manager at Haven Boatworks.

Since the law was passed in 2011, Anderson has maintained a fi le of news clippings and scientifi c studies related to the issue.

Bill 5436 states that start-ing this year, the director of the state’s Department of Ecol-ogy may establish and maintain a statewide advisory committee to help implement the bill’s require-ments. Ecology is to begin survey-ing manufacturers of antifouling paints to determine the types that are available, and study how an-tifouling paints affect marine or-

ganisms and water quality.Will the mandated change

away from copper-based paint for recreational boats cost wooden-

boat jobs here?“I don’t think so,” said Larry

Crockett, Port of Port Townsend executive director. “I expect technology to catch up. The Navy and Coast Guard have been using alternatives. I think industry will adapt and the al-ternative products will become less expensive.”

Copper also gets into wa-terways from household pesti-cides, water pipes and vehicle brake pads; state law demands that brake pads made after 2021 must contain less than 5 percent copper. An Ecology re-port called “Controlling Toxic Chemicals in Puget Sound” determined that pesticides ac-count for a third of estimated copper release in puget sound; another third was divided be-tween brake pads’ wear, boat paint and roof materials.

The Port of San Diego has begun a Copper Reduc-tion Program, and its website, portofsandiego.org, is a useful re-source for those wishing to learn more.

Bob Frank, owner of Admiral Ship Sup-ply in Port Townsend, displays some antifouling paints available at his chandlery. Photo by Robin Dudley

The Port of Port Townsend boatyard, a signifi cant economic driver in Jefferson County, is al-lowed to operate because it com-plies with a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.

The required permit, a result of the Clean Water Act of 1972, is administered by the U.S. En-vironmental Protection Agency, which delegates responsibility for the NPDES permit program to the state Department of Ecol-ogy. It’s a general permit that covers boatyards throughout the state, including SEA Marine at Point Hudson and the Port of Port Townsend Boat Haven. The current iteration is effective from June 2011 until May 31, 2016.

The permit regulates how wastewater is monitored for pol-lutants, such as copper and zinc, before it is discharged into Port Townsend Bay. The new fi ve-year permit is to take effect June 1, 2016.

The permit is the “holy grail” for the boat yard’s existence, said Larry Crockett, who re-tires June 1 after 17 years as Port of Port Townsend executive director. Crockett has played an active role in the Washing-

ton Public Ports Association (WPPA), which he said is critical in providing a voice with legisla-tors and staff in Olympia, since one permit governs every port, large and small, on the water-front or inland.

“These are state rules and Washington state is the hardest in the nation,” Crockett said.

“We’ve been successful in making our case that the bench-marks [Ecology] set are so strict, they need to give us time to have [cleansing] technology catch up,” Crockett said. “I think [Ecology] understands they can’t be so strict environmentally that sud-denly thousands and thousands of jobs around Puget Sound will disappear overnight.”

One of Port Townsend Boat Haven’s top selling points in the marine trades is being an open yard where people can work on their own boats. That privilege is at risk should people not fol-low the environmental rules. Crockett endorses the sign post-ed in the boatyard that reads: “Double Bag Your Paint Waste! If you don’t: Loose paint washes out of the dumpster, onto the ground and into the bay. Then we lose our boatyard permit. Then we replace the boatyard

with condos. Then we are all sad (except the condo owners).”

Ultimately it’s up to the boat owners, Crockett said.

“The port does not pollute. It’s the marine trades and the boat owners and I believe the worst offenders are the boat owners,” Crockett said. “Pouring your leftover half-gallon of paint in the port’s drain is not helping. We need to keep educating. If you want to have an open yard, you need to follow best manage-ment practices.”

That message is being heard by most of those working at the Boat Haven, said Al Cairns, the port’s environmental compliance offi cer.

“When we went to our marine trades a few years ago and im-pressed upon them the gravity of the moment they responded with ‘how can we help.’ We have worked together since then to develop sensible, do-able Best Management Practices and policies that, by and large, our tenants and independent con-tractors are abiding by. We still have some outliers though, and just one poorly maintained job site can have a seriously nega-tive effect on the quality of the stormwater discharge.”

State boatyard permit issued this summer


the PORT OF PORT TOWNSEND is very proud of the reputation it has earned over the years as being the premier port for marine manufacturing, repair and restoration.

P.O. Box 1180 Port Townsend, WA 98368 (360) 385-2355 • (800) 228-2803 www.portofpt.com • Email: [email protected]

Whether you are looking for superior craftsmanship from one of our 50 marine trades or looking for a do-it-yourself yard that has it all, the Port of Port Townsend is the place to be.

70-, 75- and 330-ton lift capacityeasy access to over 100 vendors offering a full range of services and supplies.

working waterfront 2016

Documents